Frank commentary from a retired call girl

Links #121

We must abandon the notion that the people govern. Instead, we must adopt the theory that, by their occasional mobilisations as a majority, people support or oppose the individuals who actually govern. – Walter Lippman

Though I could always hope for more, I’m fairly satisfied with the number of appropriate items in this last link column before Halloween. This week’s link champ is Ken White of Popehat; actually he and Radley Balko are tied with five links each, but since one of Ken’s is something he wrote himself I’m going to consider that a tiebreaker. All the links down to the new Amy Winfrey cartoon are Ken’s, and all the links after the second video are Radley’s; that one reframes one of the scariest movies of all time as an ’80s sitcom. The first few links after the first video were provided by Rachel Bloom, Ms. Samantha, Chi Mgbako, Franklin Harris, Cthulhuchick and Mike Siegel (in that order), and the last two before the second video by Jesse Walker.

7 Responses

On Expat taxes – lay that one directly on the doorstep of the Democratic Party who never met a tax they didn’t like. Hell, they’d tax sex if they could. Chuck U. Schumer of New York even wants to increase the expat punishment …

On police “snooping” cell phones. Don’t sweat this shit – the information revolution is not finished evolving. Already on the internet there is a very strong movement for anonymous surfing via tunneling and other technological advances. The people who are the smartest and most ingenious about information technology advances tend to be those who are more “anarchist” than in most other industries. We need some time – but in the end the internet is going to be a beautiful thing for liberty minded people. People are fed up with the government voyeurism – and there’s a strong market out there for transparent solutions to the problem. The government will have to pass laws against it to stop it – and that won’t even stop it.

You can’t be a Christian if you don’t own a Gun
This leads to an interesting list of people who were not Christians. Like Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John. Or Paul, not a gun-toting Christian either. The list of non-Christians gets very long and very embarrassing, but hey, what do you expect? It seems the founder of the religion, Jesus Christ, wasn’t a Christian either.

Offense 101
Well, whenever one runs across the phrase “a modest proposal” one has to wonder. And yet, it might not be an entirely bad idea.

Praying not to be raped
A good bit of satire. I was believing it until the ‘rape halo’ stuff. For any conservative politician in this country who actually does want to say something about rape, though, Stephen Colbert has some advice.

Actually, that’s probably less disturbing than what it leads to. Hey, it’s just an example. Stop looking at me like that!

Skunk Girl
“Hey, I see an animal. I GOTTA KILL IT!!”
Since neither stupidity nor being a gun-happy mother is illegal, I guess he walks.

Dutch Artist
I don’t know why so many of the great artists are Dutch, but he’s a good example of one who is.

Cannibal Cop
As long as he’s just having sick fantasies, then, as sick as they are, he should be left alone. But it looks like they’ve got genuine evidence that he was planning to make his dreams come true, so I’m glad they caught him.

Slut League
So… it seems that participation was voluntary, consensual, though some may have been told that they “aren’t cool” if they don’t participate. Maybe I’m missing something, but it seems this isn’t that big a deal.

Citizenship AND Stingrays
The Stingray thing is legitimate. The Swiss bank account thing might be, but since the whole tone was one of tax whining, it’s hard to tell.

Black Pudding
This, however, is extremely serious. A black pudding is fifteen feet across and weighs eighteen thousand pounds. They have at least eleven hit dice, and aren’t intimidated by edged weapons. Those things are nasty!

The Exorcist
Not any funnier than the actual movie. It’s a great one to riff on MST3K style. “Right house.”

Texting while driving
The real solution, of course, is to not allow human beings to drive. Solve most traffic problems right there. Unfortunately we’re dependent on the mobility human driving affords, and the self-driving cars aren’t there quite yet. They won’t be allowed in some states until they can be shown to be safer on a steep, poorly maintained road full of drunk drivers, during a tropical storm, at night, than the best human drivers are on a dry, level road on a clear day with no wind and little traffic. Fortunately, that day is a’comin’. Human beings really aren’t made for driving; it’s a wonder we can do it at all.

Finally, I saved Smartass Whale for last. The site is down due to Sandy. However, I will be trying again later in the week. So far, I’m reminded of the movie The Day of the Dolphin, though of course I could be way off.

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